Chennai City Football Club is an Indian professional football club based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Chennai City compete as a member of the I-League, the top-tier football league of India. The club was established in 1946 as Nethaji Sports Club by five friends. The club has spend the grand majority of its history competing in the local state and city tournaments but entered the national stage in 2016. On 11 December 2016 the team were awarded a direct-entry spot into the I-League for the 2016–17 season.